School Buildings and Minor Works Scheme in Crisis in Kildare – Daly

Excluding the school building projects which have completed the tender process and are awaiting the finance to continue, there are a further 55 school building projects on the books in county Kildare, many of which have been categorised as urgent by the Department itself according to Cllr Richard Daly of Fine Gael.

“Nationally almost 1400 applications are with the Department of Education and Science, some in excess of ten years and currently none of them know where they stand or when they will be moved forward on the invisible list. The complete lack of disclosure of a list or of a transparent and equitable system has meant that schools must wait for the favouritism of a minister to be progressed.

The next announcement of any movement on school buildings is expected next September which will probably kick all projects into 2009 so that another school year will now be lost and most likely the projects which should have been advanced in 2008 will be the only ones considered for 2009.

At the moment there is overcapacity in the building industry and ver competitive rates could be achieved. With a slump in the overall building industry a concentration on school buildings could sustain employment in the building industry, develop our knowledge economy and remove many of the unsightly and uneconomic prefabs from our system.

Meanwhile the Grant Scheme for Minor Works to National School Properties which is normally received by primary schools in the last quarter of the year for infrastructure, equipment, etc has this year been “postponed” until next year which will have a very negative effect on the condition of schools this year.

The education area was to be protected from cutbacks but instead seem to be having all of its capital spending deferred into the future. There seems to be no plan available for what has become a school building crisis.” Said cllr Daly